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Majority of world’s largest aquifers are being drained at unsustainable rate, NASA data show

New data gathered by NASA satellites indicate that most of the world’s largest underground aquifers, sources of water for hundreds of millions of people, are being depleted at speedy rates.

The data, according to The Washington Post, provide the most compelling and detailed picture yet of the status of vital water reserves hidden underneath the earth’s surface.

The paper further reported:

Twenty-one of the world’s 37 largest aquifers — in locations from India and China to the United States and France — have passed their sustainability tipping points, meaning more water was removed than replaced during the decade-long study period, researchers announced…. Thirteen aquifers declined at rates that put them into the most troubled category. The researchers said this indicated a long-term problem that’s likely to worsen as reliance on aquifers grows.

For some time, scientists suspected that humans were exacting a toll on the globe’s underground water supply. However, the NASA data and study were the first to actually detail major aquifer draw-downs as they struggled to keep pace with agricultural, human need and industrial demands.

For some time, scientists suspected that humans were exacting a toll on the globe’s underground water supply. However, the NASA data and study were the first to actually detail major aquifer draw-downs as they struggled to keep pace with agricultural, human need and industrial demands.

“The situation is quite critical,” Jay Famiglietti, senior water scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California and principal investigator of the University of California Irvine-led studies, told the Post.